Do We Offer a Jesus Who Is Too Gentle?

Sometimes I wonder if we who are followers of Jesus offer the unreached world a Jesus who is too gentle.  Not that the soft side of Jesus isn't of supreme value.  People need a Jesus who will comfort them when they are in sorrow, love and forgive them when they fail, encourage them when they are discouraged, and walk with them when they experience pain or confusion.  All of that is important and true.  It's just that, with notable exceptions, mainline Christianity seems to default to this care-giver kind of Jesus alone.

In the testimony of the Holy Spirit at work in the first century, the book of Acts, the author (the physician known a Luke) breaks the narrative periodically to describe what it was like in those first gatherings of Jesus-followers.  Covering a variety of dimensions of life in Christ, two elements are present without little variance in each of these descriptions:  The Lord adding daily to the number of people being saved, and signs and wonders.  (See Acts 2:42-47.)   People unable to walk leaped up and danced.   Sick people were healed.  Prison walls came tumbling down.  Dead people were alive again.  Pagans met Jesus.  Oppressive religious authorities were challenged.  Politcal and economic systems shook.  This is not a gentle Jesus alone.  This is a Jesus of power.  

During this summer I became gripped by a worship song that simply says, "There is POWER in the name of Jesus, to break EVERY chain."  A hurting, damaged, confused, frightening, aimless world certainly needs comfort.  But it also needs power; power to break all the chains that bind us, both now and eternally.  We see evidence all around us of chains that must be broken:  inner chains (Robin Williams), relational chains (Ray Rice, etc.), emotional chains, economic chains, political chains (ISIS, etc.), and on and on.  By all evidence the first century Church was marked by evidences of raise-Jesus-from-the-dead power.

Let's admit that many of us in the so-called "west" are uncomfortable with this.   False, manipulative, and showy "faith healing" efforts have made us gun shy.  Or we are so steeped in an Enlightenment, rationalistic, imperical view of reality that we refuse to acknowledge the presence of signs and wonders; holy acts of power.   Many so-called "third world" Jesus-followers do not function with this restriction.  The number of people added to those being saved in these settings is astounding, while mainline churches in North American continue to decline. Is there a connection?

And, if there is a connection, how do we unleash signs and wonders power in our midst?   The truth is that we don't unleash it.  We don't create it with another seminar, book study, or small group.  We can only humbly, continuously, and centrally invite it.  We have to pray and wait faithfully.  I'm sure not expert, but here are some things to try.

1.  As individuals and churches, we can practice yielding prayer.   We can come before God with the following:  What chains need to be broken in my heart and life?  What are the chains in the world around me that need to be broken?   What does my church need to do to break those chains?  

2.  Designate spoecific times for those who want to be involved in corporate chain-breaking prayer.  Our fellowship has designated 5:00 p.m. on Wednesdays.

3.  Speaking for me, fasting needs to be a greater part of my prayer life.  I think that does need to involve foregoing meals or other things,  But I think it must also be an Isaiah 58 fast - doing chain-breaking acts of both mercy and justice.

My thoughts are still formulating on all this.  I just know it burns in my heart.

What do you think?  I'll see you around the next bend in the river.